This is the last movie that Charles Bronson made before the death of his second wife, actress Jill Ireland. At 68 and with a string of mediocre action thrillers littering his 1980s output, this sleazy cop movie turned out to be one of his better efforts of the decade. Bronson plays vice detective Crowe, a racist veteran of the force who has grown weary of seeing the scum of Los Angeles dragging innocent children into prostitution and drugs. A parallel storyline follows visiting Japanese businessman Hiroshi Hada (James Pax) who struggles to adapt to American values and soon after arriving loses his young daughter to slimy pimp Duke (Juan Fernandez). Crowe has already had run-ins with Duke, so when he is assigned to find Hada's daughter, the stories merge with tragic results. Bronson is still trim and performs well as Crowe, with several good action sequences. Largely maligned as an actor because he underplayed his leading roles, Bronson always fit this type of role because you could believe that he actually does the things he is portraying. There is a nice little scene involving an ethnic event where Crowe vents his frustration on some startled Japanese that speaks volumes about character motivation. Juan Fernandez is exceptional as Duke and makes his character truly evil. Veteran British director J. Lee Thompson does a fair job of keeping the movie plugging along and has a great set piece at the end of the movie involving a crane and crashing automobiles. The subject matter isn't as exploited as it could have been, but it's still pretty rough and loaded with nudity and violence. Bronson fans won't be disappointed and even non-fans (like my wife) enjoyed it.
